Systems and methods for content creation

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media can provide a messaging interface for distributing visual messages through a social networking system. At least one visual message that was created using the messaging interface can be determined. The visual message can include at least some text inputted by a user that authored the visual message. The at least one visual message can be provided for distribution through the social networking system.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present technology relates to the field of content creation. Moreparticularly, the present technology relates to techniques for providingusers with the ability to create and distribute content.

BACKGROUND

Today, people often utilize computing devices (or systems) for a widevariety of purposes. Users can use their computing devices to, forexample, interact with one another, access content, share content, andcreate content. In some cases, media content items can include postingsfrom members of a social network. The postings may include text andmedia content items, such as images, videos, and audio. The postings maybe published to the social network for consumption by others.

Under conventional approaches, users may post various media contentitems to a social networking system. In general, media content itemsposted by a first user can be included in the respective content feedsof other users of the social networking system that have “followed” thefirst user. By following (or subscribing to) the first user, some or allcontent that is produced, or posted, by the first user may be includedin the respective content feeds of the following users. A user followingthe first user can simply unfollow the first user to prevent new contentthat is produced by the first user from being included in the followinguser's content feed.

SUMMARY

Various embodiments of the present disclosure can include systems,methods, and non-transitory computer readable media configured toprovide a messaging interface for distributing visual messages through asocial networking system. At least one visual message that was createdusing the messaging interface can be determined. The visual message caninclude at least some text inputted by a user that authored the visualmessage. The at least one visual message can be provided fordistribution through the social networking system.

In some embodiments, the messaging interface is provided in response toa touchscreen gesture performed through a display screen of thecomputing device.

In some embodiments, the at least one visual message is an ephemeralmessage.

In some embodiments, the at least one visual message expires after apre-defined period of time has elapsed or after being accessed by arecipient of the at least one visual message.

In some embodiments, the messaging interface provides options forinserting background content within the at least one visual message.

In some embodiments, the messaging interface provides an option foradjusting an opacity level for the background content.

In some embodiments, the messaging interface provides at least an optionfor selecting one or more colors to be used as background content or anoption for capturing subject matter to be used as background content.

In some embodiments, the systems, methods, and non-transitory computerreadable media are configured to provide the at least one visual messageto be published as a story through the social networking system.

In some embodiments, the systems, methods, and non-transitory computerreadable media are configured to send the at least one visual message asa message to one or more other users of the social networking system.

In some embodiments, the messaging interface provides an option forsaving the at least one visual message as an image in a local data storeaccessible to the computing device.

It should be appreciated that many other features, applications,embodiments, and/or variations of the disclosed technology will beapparent from the accompanying drawings and from the following detaileddescription. Additional and/or alternative implementations of thestructures, systems, non-transitory computer readable media, and methodsdescribed herein can be employed without departing from the principlesof the disclosed technology.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system including an example contentprovider module, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example visual message module, according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 3A-3C illustrate example interfaces, according to embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example method, according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates a network diagram of an example system including anexample social networking system that can be utilized in variousscenarios, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a computer system or computing devicethat can be utilized in various scenarios, according to an embodiment ofthe present disclosure.

The figures depict various embodiments of the disclosed technology forpurposes of illustration only, wherein the figures use like referencenumerals to identify like elements. One skilled in the art will readilyrecognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments ofthe structures and methods illustrated in the figures can be employedwithout departing from the principles of the disclosed technologydescribed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Approaches for Content Creation

People often utilize computing devices (or systems) for a wide varietyof purposes. Users can use their computing devices to, for example,interact with one another, access content, share content, and createcontent. In some cases, media content items can include postings frommembers of a social network. The postings may include text and mediacontent items, such as images, videos, and audio. The postings may bepublished to the social network for consumption by others.

Under conventional approaches, users may post various media contentitems to a social networking system. In general, media content itemsposted by a first user can be included in the respective content feedsof other users of the social networking system that have “followed” thefirst user. By following (or subscribing to) the first user, some or allcontent that is produced, or posted, by the first user may be includedin the respective content feeds of the users following the first user. Auser following the first user can prevent new content from the firstuser from being included in the user's content feed by simply“unfollowing” the first user. Conventional approaches, however, can havelimitations that can degrade the overall user experience. For example,conventional approaches generally do not permit users to create andshare visual messages that can be distributed through a socialnetworking system. Further, conventional approaches generally do notpermit users to insert text (or overlays) in visual messages.Accordingly, such conventional approaches may not be effective inaddressing these and other problems arising in computer technology.

An improved approach rooted in computer technology overcomes theforegoing and other disadvantages associated with conventionalapproaches specifically arising in the realm of computer technology. Invarious embodiments, a visual messaging option can be provided. Forexample, the visual messaging option can be provided in an interface(e.g., messaging interface) through which users can create anddistribute visual messages through a social networking system. Theinterface can provide a virtual keyboard that can be used to input textto be included in a visual message. In some embodiments, the visualmessage can be sent as an instant message to one or more other users ofthe social networking system. In some embodiments, the visual messagecan be published (or posted) as a story which can be accessed throughthe social networking system. In various embodiments, users have theability to customize such visual messages based on myriad options.Visual messages, therefore, provide users with another medium forexpressing themselves in ways that are generally not possible underconventional approaches that limit users to simply capturing and sharingimages.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system 100 including an example contentprovider module 102, according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. As shown in the example of FIG. 1, the content providermodule 102 can include a content module 104, a follow module 106, aninteraction module 108, a story module 110, and a visual message module112. In some instances, the example system 100 can include at least onedata store 122. The components (e.g., modules, elements, etc.) shown inthis figure and all figures herein are exemplary only, and otherimplementations may include additional, fewer, integrated, or differentcomponents. Some components may not be shown so as not to obscurerelevant details.

In some embodiments, the content provider module 102 can be implemented,in part or in whole, as software, hardware, or any combination thereof.In general, a module as discussed herein can be associated withsoftware, hardware, or any combination thereof. In some implementations,one or more functions, tasks, and/or operations of modules can becarried out or performed by software routines, software processes,hardware, and/or any combination thereof. In some cases, the contentprovider module 102 or at least a portion thereof can be implementedusing one or more computing devices or systems that include one or moreservers, such as network servers or cloud servers. In some instances,the content provider module 102 can, in part or in whole, be implementedwithin or configured to operate in conjunction with a social networkingsystem (or service), such as the social networking system 530 of FIG. 5.In some instances, the content provider module 102 can be, in part or inwhole, implemented within or configured to operate in conjunction or beintegrated with a client computing device, such as the user device 510of FIG. 5. For example, the content provider module 102 can beimplemented as or within a dedicated application (e.g., app), a program,or an applet running on a user computing device or client computingsystem. The application incorporating or implementing instructions forperforming some, or all, functionality of the content provider module102 can be created by a developer. The application can be provided to ormaintained in a repository. In some cases, the application can beuploaded or otherwise transmitted over a network (e.g., Internet) to therepository. For example, a computing system (e.g., server) associatedwith or under control of the developer of the application can provide ortransmit the application to the repository. The repository can include,for example, an “app” store in which the application can be maintainedfor access or download by a user. In response to a command by the userto download the application, the application can be provided orotherwise transmitted over a network from the repository to a computingdevice associated with the user. For example, a computing system (e.g.,server) associated with or under control of an administrator of therepository can cause or permit the application to be transmitted to thecomputing device of the user so that the user can install and run theapplication. The developer of the application and the administrator ofthe repository can be different entities in some cases, but can be thesame entity in other cases. It should be understood that many variationsare possible.

The content provider module 102 can be configured to communicate and/oroperate with the at least one data store 122, as shown in the examplesystem 100. The at least one data store 122 can be configured to storeand maintain various types of data. For example, the data store 122 canstore information describing various content that has been posted byusers of a social networking system. In some implementations, the atleast one data store 122 can store information associated with thesocial networking system (e.g., the social networking system 530 of FIG.5). The information associated with the social networking system caninclude data about users, social connections, social interactions,locations, geo-fenced areas, maps, places, events, pages, groups, posts,communications, content, feeds, account settings, privacy settings, asocial graph, and various other types of data. In some implementations,the at least one data store 122 can store information associated withusers, such as user identifiers, user information, profile information,user specified settings, content produced or posted by users, andvarious other types of user data.

The content provider module 102 can be configured to provide users withaccess to content that is posted through a social networking system. Forexample, the content module 104 can provide a first user with access tomedia content items through an interface that is provided by a softwareapplication (e.g., a social networking application, browser, etc.)running on a computing device of the first user. The first user can alsouse the interface to post media content items to the social networkingsystem. Such media content items may include text, images, audio,videos, and live content streams, for example. In some embodiments, thesoftware application is configured to send information describing useractions to the social networking system. Such information can include,for example, which media content items the first user has viewed, arespective view duration for each media content item, and other actions(e.g., like, comment, share, etc.) performed by the user with respect toa given media content item, to name some examples.

In various embodiments, other users of the social networking system canaccess media content items posted by the first user. In one example, theother users can access the media content items by searching for thefirst user, for example, by user name through an interface provided by asoftware application (e.g., a social networking application, browser,etc.) running on their respective computing devices. In some instances,some users may want to see media content items posted by the first userin their respective content feed. To cause media content items posted bythe first user to be included in their respective content feed, a usercan select an option through the interface to subscribe to, or “follow”,the first user. The follow module 106 can process the user's request byidentifying the user as a follower of (or “friend” of) the first user inthe social networking system. As a result, some or all media contentitems that are posted by the first user can automatically be included inthe respective content feed of the user. If the user decides that theyno longer want to see content from the first user in their respectivecontent feed, the user can select an option through the interface to“unfollow” the first user. As a result, the follow module 106 can removethe association between the user and the first user so that mediacontent items posted by the first user are no longer included in thecontent feed of the user. In some instances, the user may want toendorse, or “like”, a media content item. In such instances, the usercan select an option provided in the interface to like the desired mediacontent item. The interaction module 108 can determine when a user likesa given media content item and can store information describing thisrelationship. In some instances, the user may want to post a comment inresponse to a media content item. In such instances, the user can selectan option provided in the interface to enter and post the comment forthe desired media content item. The interaction module 108 can determinewhen a user posts a comment in response to a given media content itemand can store information describing this relationship. In someembodiments, such information can be stored in a social graph asdescribed in reference to FIG. 5.

In some embodiments, the story module 110 can provide an option thatallows users to post their content as stories. In such embodiments, eachuser has a corresponding story (or story feed) in which the user canpost content. When a user's story is accessed by another user, the storymodule 110 can provide content posted in the story to the other user forviewing. In general, content posted in a user's story may be accessibleby any user of the social networking system. In some embodiments,content posted in a user's story may only be accessible to followers ofthe user. In some embodiments, user stories expire after a pre-definedtime interval (e.g., every 24 hours). In such embodiments, contentposted in stories is treated as ephemeral content that is madeinaccessible once the pre-defined time interval has elapsed. Incontrast, content posted in a user (or follower) content feed can betreated as non-ephemeral content that remains accessible for anindefinite period of time.

In some embodiments, the visual message module 112 is configured toprovide options for creating and sharing visual messages through asocial networking system (e.g., the social networking system 530 of FIG.5). More details regarding the visual message module 112 will beprovided below with reference to FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 illustrates a visual message module 202, according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the visualmessage module 112 of FIG. 1 can be implemented with the visual messagemodule 202. As shown in the example of FIG. 2, the visual message module202 can include an interface module 204, a visual options module 206, abackground module 208, and a share module 210.

The interface module 204 can provide a messaging interface through whichusers can send and access visual messages. For example, the messaginginterface may be provided by a software application (e.g., a socialnetworking application, browser, etc.) running on a computing device.The messaging interface can be presented through a display screen of thecomputing device. A user operating the computing device can interactwith the messaging interface to create (or compose) new visual messages.In some embodiments, the user can select a visual message optionincluded in the messaging interface to create a new visual message. Insome embodiments, the user can perform one or more touchscreen gesturesto create a new visual message. For example, in some embodiments, theuser can perform a pull gesture (e.g., dragging the display screendownward) to create a new visual message. In various embodiments, when anew visual message is being created, the interface module 204 canprovide a virtual keyboard that can be used to input text to be includedin the visual message. For example, the text can be inserted in thevisual message as a graphical overlay. More details regarding themessaging interface will be provided below with reference to FIGS.3A-3C.

In some embodiments, visual messages shared through a social networkingsystem (e.g., the social networking system 530 of FIG. 5) are treated asephemeral content that is made inaccessible once a pre-defined eventoccurs. For instance, an ephemeral visual message become inaccessible toa recipient once that recipient has viewed (or accessed) the visualmessage a specified number of times. In another example, an ephemeralvisual message can become inaccessible after a pre-defined time intervalhas elapsed.

The visual options module 206 can provide various options for formattingvisual messages. In various embodiments, such options are accessiblethrough a messaging interface provided by the interface module 204. Insome embodiments, the visual options module 206 can provide an optionfor specifying font settings for text included in a visual message. Asmentioned, a user can input text to be included in a visual messageusing a virtual keyboard. The user can also select an option to specify(or modify) font settings corresponding to the inputted text. Forinstance, the user can select a font in which the inputted text will bepresented when the visual message is accessed by its intended audience.In another example, the user can specify (or modify) a font size and/orfont color in which the inputted text will be presented when the visualmessage is accessed by its intended audience.

In some embodiments, the background module 208 can provide options forinserting background content (or a background image) within a visualmessage. In various embodiments, these options can be accessible througha messaging interface provided by the interface module 204. In someembodiments, the background module 208 can provide options forspecifying one or more background colors. For example, a background of avisual message may be a solid color or multiple colors. In someembodiments, the background module 208 can provide an option foruploading a content item (e.g., image, video) to be used as backgroundcontent within a visual message. For example, a user operating acomputing device may select an image from a camera roll (or local datastore) to be used as background content within a visual message. In someembodiments, the background module 208 provides a camera mode option forcapturing content (e.g., images, videos) to be used as backgroundcontent within a visual message being created. For example, when thecamera mode option is enabled, subject matter being captured by one ormore cameras of a computing device can be presented through a displayscreen of the computing device. In this example, when subject matter ofinterest is identified, a user operating the computing device can selectan option to capture and use the subject matter as background content inthe visual message being created. In some embodiments, the backgroundmodule 208 can allow users to modify an opacity level for backgroundcontent inserted in a visual message. For example, users can adjust theopacity level for background content inserted in a visual message toincrease or decrease an amount of transparency associated with thebackground content.

Once a visual message has been created, the share module 210 can provideoptions for sharing the visual message through a social networkingsystem (e.g., the social networking system 530 of FIG. 5). In someembodiments, the share module 210 can provide an option for sending thevisual message as an instant message to one or more other users of thesocial networking system. In some embodiments, the share module 210 canprovide an option for sharing the visual message as a story that ispublished through the social networking system. In some embodiments, theshare module 210 can provide an option for saving the visual message asan image within a local data store of a computing device. More detailsregarding the sharing of visual messages will be provided below withreference to FIGS. 3A-3C.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example 300 of an interface 304, according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. In this example, the interface 304is presented through a display screen of a computing device 302.Further, the interface 304 may be provided through an application (e.g.,a web browser, a social networking application, messenger application,etc.) running on the computing device 302 that is configured to interactwith a social networking system. In the example of FIG. 3A, theinterface 304 corresponds to a messaging interface through which visualmessages can be created. Depending on the implementation, the interface304 may be accessed by selecting a visual messaging option or byperforming a touchscreen gesture. A user operating the computing device302 can interact with the interface 304 to create a visual message. Forexample, the user can perform a touchscreen gesture (e.g., tap gesture)within a region 306 to access a virtual keyboard. The user can theninsert text to be included in the visual message using the virtualkeyboard. The text can be inserted within the visual message as agraphical overlay, for example.

The interface 304 can provide a number of options for customizing thevisual message. In the example of FIG. 3A, the interface 304 includes anoption 308 for selecting a font (or a theme) to be applied to textincluded in the visual message. In some embodiments, the interface 304also includes an option 310 for highlighting some or all of the textincluded in the visual message. In some embodiments, the interface 304includes an option 312 for specifying an alignment for the text includedin the visual message. For example, the option 312 can be selected toleft align, right align, or center align the text included in the visualmessage. In some embodiments, the interface 304 includes an option 314for selecting a color (or colors) to be used as background content. Insome embodiments, the interface 304 includes an option 316 for enablinga camera mode. Once in camera mode, the interface 304 can capture andpresent subject matter using one or more cameras in the computing device302, as illustrated in the example of FIG. 3B. The user operating thecomputing device 302 can select an option (e.g., the option 318) tocapture content to be used as background content in the visual message.In some embodiments, an option 320 (e.g., a slider) can be used toadjust an opacity level for background content. The user can also inputtext to be included in the visual message. For instance, the user canselect an option or perform a touchscreen gesture (e.g., a tap gesture)to access a virtual keyboard through the interface 304. The user canthen use the virtual keyboard to input text. In the example of FIG. 3B,the user has inputted the text “Coffee Break?” in the visual message.Once the visual message is ready to be shared, the user operating thecomputing device 302 can select an option 318 to share the visualmessage through the social networking system. The interface 304 canprovide options for sharing the visual message when the option 318 isselected, as illustrated in the example of FIG. 3C. For example, theinterface 304 can provide an option 322 for saving the visual message asan image in a local data store that is accessible to the computingdevice 302. In another example, the interface 304 can provide an option324 for posting the visual message as a story. In yet another example,the interface 304 can provide an option 326 for sending the visualmessage as an instant message to one or more other users of the socialnetworking system. The example functionality described in connectionwith FIGS. 3A-3C can be implemented by the visual message module 112, asdiscussed above. Many variations are possible.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example method, according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure. It should be appreciated that there can beadditional, fewer, or alternative steps performed in similar oralternative orders, or in parallel, within the scope of the variousembodiments discussed herein unless otherwise stated.

At block 402, a messaging interface for distributing visual messagesthrough a social networking system can be provided. At block 404, atleast one visual message that was created using the messaging interfacecan be determined. The visual message can include at least some textinputted by a user that authored the visual message. At block 406, theat least one visual message can be provided for distribution through thesocial networking system.

It is contemplated that there can be many other uses, applications,and/or variations associated with the various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. For example, in some cases, user can choose whether or notto opt-in to utilize the disclosed technology. The disclosed technologycan also ensure that various privacy settings and preferences aremaintained and can prevent private information from being divulged. Inanother example, various embodiments of the present disclosure canlearn, improve, and/or be refined over time.

Social Networking System—Example Implementation

FIG. 5 illustrates a network diagram of an example system 500 that canbe utilized in various scenarios, in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present disclosure. The system 500 includes one or more user devices510, one or more external systems 520, a social networking system (orservice) 530, and a network 550. In an embodiment, the social networkingservice, provider, and/or system discussed in connection with theembodiments described above may be implemented as the social networkingsystem 530. For purposes of illustration, the embodiment of the system500, shown by FIG. 5, includes a single external system 520 and a singleuser device 510. However, in other embodiments, the system 500 mayinclude more user devices 510 and/or more external systems 520. Incertain embodiments, the social networking system 530 is operated by asocial network provider, whereas the external systems 520 are separatefrom the social networking system 530 in that they may be operated bydifferent entities. In various embodiments, however, the socialnetworking system 530 and the external systems 520 operate inconjunction to provide social networking services to users (or members)of the social networking system 530. In this sense, the socialnetworking system 530 provides a platform or backbone, which othersystems, such as external systems 520, may use to provide socialnetworking services and functionalities to users across the Internet.

The user device 510 comprises one or more computing devices (or systems)that can receive input from a user and transmit and receive data via thenetwork 550. In one embodiment, the user device 510 is a conventionalcomputer system executing, for example, a Microsoft Windows compatibleoperating system (OS), Apple OS X, and/or a Linux distribution. Inanother embodiment, the user device 510 can be a computing device or adevice having computer functionality, such as a smart-phone, a tablet, apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a laptop computer,a wearable device (e.g., a pair of glasses, a watch, a bracelet, etc.),a camera, an appliance, etc. The user device 510 is configured tocommunicate via the network 550. The user device 510 can execute anapplication, for example, a browser application that allows a user ofthe user device 510 to interact with the social networking system 530.In another embodiment, the user device 510 interacts with the socialnetworking system 530 through an application programming interface (API)provided by the native operating system of the user device 510, such asiOS and ANDROID. The user device 510 is configured to communicate withthe external system 520 and the social networking system 530 via thenetwork 550, which may comprise any combination of local area and/orwide area networks, using wired and/or wireless communication systems.

In one embodiment, the network 550 uses standard communicationstechnologies and protocols. Thus, the network 550 can include linksusing technologies such as Ethernet, 802.11, worldwide interoperabilityfor microwave access (WiMAX), 3G, 4G, CDMA, GSM, LTE, digital subscriberline (DSL), etc. Similarly, the networking protocols used on the network550 can include multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), transmissioncontrol protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), User Datagram Protocol(UDP), hypertext transport protocol (HTTP), simple mail transferprotocol (SMTP), file transfer protocol (FTP), and the like. The dataexchanged over the network 550 can be represented using technologiesand/or formats including hypertext markup language (HTML) and extensiblemarkup language (XML). In addition, all or some links can be encryptedusing conventional encryption technologies such as secure sockets layer(SSL), transport layer security (TLS), and Internet Protocol security(IPsec).

In one embodiment, the user device 510 may display content from theexternal system 520 and/or from the social networking system 530 byprocessing a markup language document 514 received from the externalsystem 520 and from the social networking system 530 using a browserapplication 512. The markup language document 514 identifies content andone or more instructions describing formatting or presentation of thecontent. By executing the instructions included in the markup languagedocument 514, the browser application 512 displays the identifiedcontent using the format or presentation described by the markuplanguage document 514. For example, the markup language document 514includes instructions for generating and displaying a web page havingmultiple frames that include text and/or image data retrieved from theexternal system 520 and the social networking system 530. In variousembodiments, the markup language document 514 comprises a data fileincluding extensible markup language (XML) data, extensible hypertextmarkup language (XHTML) data, or other markup language data.Additionally, the markup language document 514 may include JavaScriptObject Notation (JSON) data, JSON with padding (JSONP), and JavaScriptdata to facilitate data-interchange between the external system 520 andthe user device 510. The browser application 512 on the user device 510may use a JavaScript compiler to decode the markup language document514.

The markup language document 514 may also include, or link to,applications or application frameworks such as FLASH™ or Unity™applications, the Silverlight™ application framework, etc.

In one embodiment, the user device 510 also includes one or more cookies516 including data indicating whether a user of the user device 510 islogged into the social networking system 530, which may enablemodification of the data communicated from the social networking system530 to the user device 510.

The external system 520 includes one or more web servers that includeone or more web pages 522 a, 522 b, which are communicated to the userdevice 510 using the network 550. The external system 520 is separatefrom the social networking system 530. For example, the external system520 is associated with a first domain, while the social networkingsystem 530 is associated with a separate social networking domain. Webpages 522 a, 522 b, included in the external system 520, comprise markuplanguage documents 514 identifying content and including instructionsspecifying formatting or presentation of the identified content. Asdiscussed previously, it should be appreciated that there can be manyvariations or other possibilities.

The social networking system 530 includes one or more computing devicesfor a social network, including a plurality of users, and providingusers of the social network with the ability to communicate and interactwith other users of the social network. In some instances, the socialnetwork can be represented by a graph, i.e., a data structure includingedges and nodes. Other data structures can also be used to represent thesocial network, including but not limited to databases, objects,classes, meta elements, files, or any other data structure. The socialnetworking system 530 may be administered, managed, or controlled by anoperator. The operator of the social networking system 530 may be ahuman being, an automated application, or a series of applications formanaging content, regulating policies, and collecting usage metricswithin the social networking system 530. Any type of operator may beused.

Users may join the social networking system 530 and then add connectionsto any number of other users of the social networking system 530 to whomthey desire to be connected. As used herein, the term “friend” refers toany other user of the social networking system 530 to whom a user hasformed a connection, association, or relationship via the socialnetworking system 530. For example, in an embodiment, if users in thesocial networking system 530 are represented as nodes in the socialgraph, the term “friend” can refer to an edge formed between anddirectly connecting two user nodes.

Connections may be added explicitly by a user or may be automaticallycreated by the social networking system 530 based on commoncharacteristics of the users (e.g., users who are alumni of the sameeducational institution). For example, a first user specifically selectsa particular other user to be a friend. Connections in the socialnetworking system 530 are usually in both directions, but need not be,so the terms “user” and “friend” depend on the frame of reference.Connections between users of the social networking system 530 areusually bilateral (“two-way”), or “mutual,” but connections may also beunilateral, or “one-way.” For example, if Bob and Joe are both users ofthe social networking system 530 and connected to each other, Bob andJoe are each other's connections. If, on the other hand, Bob wishes toconnect to Joe to view data communicated to the social networking system530 by Joe, but Joe does not wish to form a mutual connection, aunilateral connection may be established. The connection between usersmay be a direct connection; however, some embodiments of the socialnetworking system 530 allow the connection to be indirect via one ormore levels of connections or degrees of separation.

In addition to establishing and maintaining connections between usersand allowing interactions between users, the social networking system530 provides users with the ability to take actions on various types ofitems supported by the social networking system 530. These items mayinclude groups or networks (i.e., social networks of people, entities,and concepts) to which users of the social networking system 530 maybelong, events or calendar entries in which a user might be interested,computer-based applications that a user may use via the socialnetworking system 530, transactions that allow users to buy or sellitems via services provided by or through the social networking system530, and interactions with advertisements that a user may perform on oroff the social networking system 530. These are just a few examples ofthe items upon which a user may act on the social networking system 530,and many others are possible. A user may interact with anything that iscapable of being represented in the social networking system 530 or inthe external system 520, separate from the social networking system 530,or coupled to the social networking system 530 via the network 550.

The social networking system 530 is also capable of linking a variety ofentities. For example, the social networking system 530 enables users tointeract with each other as well as external systems 520 or otherentities through an API, a web service, or other communication channels.The social networking system 530 generates and maintains the “socialgraph” comprising a plurality of nodes interconnected by a plurality ofedges. Each node in the social graph may represent an entity that canact on another node and/or that can be acted on by another node. Thesocial graph may include various types of nodes. Examples of types ofnodes include users, non-person entities, media content items, webpages, groups, activities, messages, concepts, and any other things thatcan be represented by an object in the social networking system 530. Anedge between two nodes in the social graph may represent a particularkind of connection, or association, between the two nodes, which mayresult from node relationships or from an action that was performed byone of the nodes on the other node. In some cases, the edges betweennodes can be weighted. The weight of an edge can represent an attributeassociated with the edge, such as a strength of the connection orassociation between nodes. Different types of edges can be provided withdifferent weights. For example, an edge created when one user “likes”another user may be given one weight, while an edge created when a userbefriends another user may be given a different weight.

As an example, when a first user identifies a second user as a friend,an edge in the social graph is generated connecting a node representingthe first user and a second node representing the second user. Asvarious nodes relate or interact with each other, the social networkingsystem 530 modifies edges connecting the various nodes to reflect therelationships and interactions.

The social networking system 530 also includes user-generated content,which enhances a user's interactions with the social networking system530. User-generated content may include anything a user can add, upload,send, or “post” to the social networking system 530. For example, a usercommunicates posts to the social networking system 530 from a userdevice 510. Posts may include data such as status updates or othertextual data, location information, images such as photos, videos,links, music or other similar data and/or media. Content may also beadded to the social networking system 530 by a third party. Content“items” are represented as objects in the social networking system 530.In this way, users of the social networking system 530 are encouraged tocommunicate with each other by posting text and media content items ofvarious types of media through various communication channels. Suchcommunication increases the interaction of users with each other andincreases the frequency with which users interact with the socialnetworking system 530.

The social networking system 530 includes a web server 532, an APIrequest server 534, a user profile store 536, a connection store 538, anaction logger 540, an activity log 542, and an authorization server 544.In an embodiment of the invention, the social networking system 530 mayinclude additional, fewer, or different components for variousapplications. Other components, such as network interfaces, securitymechanisms, load balancers, failover servers, management and networkoperations consoles, and the like are not shown so as to not obscure thedetails of the system.

The user profile store 536 maintains information about user accounts,including biographic, demographic, and other types of descriptiveinformation, such as work experience, educational history, hobbies orpreferences, location, and the like that has been declared by users orinferred by the social networking system 530. This information is storedin the user profile store 536 such that each user is uniquelyidentified. The social networking system 530 also stores data describingone or more connections between different users in the connection store538. The connection information may indicate users who have similar orcommon work experience, group memberships, hobbies, or educationalhistory. Additionally, the social networking system 530 includesuser-defined connections between different users, allowing users tospecify their relationships with other users. For example, user-definedconnections allow users to generate relationships with other users thatparallel the users' real-life relationships, such as friends,co-workers, partners, and so forth. Users may select from predefinedtypes of connections, or define their own connection types as needed.Connections with other nodes in the social networking system 530, suchas non-person entities, buckets, cluster centers, images, interests,pages, external systems, concepts, and the like are also stored in theconnection store 538.

The social networking system 530 maintains data about objects with whicha user may interact. To maintain this data, the user profile store 536and the connection store 538 store instances of the corresponding typeof objects maintained by the social networking system 530. Each objecttype has information fields that are suitable for storing informationappropriate to the type of object. For example, the user profile store536 contains data structures with fields suitable for describing auser's account and information related to a user's account. When a newobject of a particular type is created, the social networking system 530initializes a new data structure of the corresponding type, assigns aunique object identifier to it, and begins to add data to the object asneeded. This might occur, for example, when a user becomes a user of thesocial networking system 530, the social networking system 530 generatesa new instance of a user profile in the user profile store 536, assignsa unique identifier to the user account, and begins to populate thefields of the user account with information provided by the user.

The connection store 538 includes data structures suitable fordescribing a user's connections to other users, connections to externalsystems 520 or connections to other entities. The connection store 538may also associate a connection type with a user's connections, whichmay be used in conjunction with the user's privacy setting to regulateaccess to information about the user. In an embodiment of the invention,the user profile store 536 and the connection store 538 may beimplemented as a federated database.

Data stored in the connection store 538, the user profile store 536, andthe activity log 542 enables the social networking system 530 togenerate the social graph that uses nodes to identify various objectsand edges connecting nodes to identify relationships between differentobjects. For example, if a first user establishes a connection with asecond user in the social networking system 530, user accounts of thefirst user and the second user from the user profile store 536 may actas nodes in the social graph. The connection between the first user andthe second user stored by the connection store 538 is an edge betweenthe nodes associated with the first user and the second user. Continuingthis example, the second user may then send the first user a messagewithin the social networking system 530. The action of sending themessage, which may be stored, is another edge between the two nodes inthe social graph representing the first user and the second user.Additionally, the message itself may be identified and included in thesocial graph as another node connected to the nodes representing thefirst user and the second user.

In another example, a first user may tag a second user in an image thatis maintained by the social networking system 530 (or, alternatively, inan image maintained by another system outside of the social networkingsystem 530). The image may itself be represented as a node in the socialnetworking system 530. This tagging action may create edges between thefirst user and the second user as well as create an edge between each ofthe users and the image, which is also a node in the social graph. Inyet another example, if a user confirms attending an event, the user andthe event are nodes obtained from the user profile store 536, where theattendance of the event is an edge between the nodes that may beretrieved from the activity log 542. By generating and maintaining thesocial graph, the social networking system 530 includes data describingmany different types of objects and the interactions and connectionsamong those objects, providing a rich source of socially relevantinformation.

The web server 532 links the social networking system 530 to one or moreuser devices 510 and/or one or more external systems 520 via the network550. The web server 532 serves web pages, as well as other web-relatedcontent, such as Java, JavaScript, Flash, XML, and so forth. The webserver 532 may include a mail server or other messaging functionalityfor receiving and routing messages between the social networking system530 and one or more user devices 510. The messages can be instantmessages, queued messages (e.g., email), text and SMS messages, or anyother suitable messaging format.

The API request server 534 allows one or more external systems 520 anduser devices 510 to call access information from the social networkingsystem 530 by calling one or more API functions. The API request server534 may also allow external systems 520 to send information to thesocial networking system 530 by calling APIs. The external system 520,in one embodiment, sends an API request to the social networking system530 via the network 550, and the API request server 534 receives the APIrequest. The API request server 534 processes the request by calling anAPI associated with the API request to generate an appropriate response,which the API request server 534 communicates to the external system 520via the network 550. For example, responsive to an API request, the APIrequest server 534 collects data associated with a user, such as theuser's connections that have logged into the external system 520, andcommunicates the collected data to the external system 520. In anotherembodiment, the user device 510 communicates with the social networkingsystem 530 via APIs in the same manner as external systems 520.

The action logger 540 is capable of receiving communications from theweb server 532 about user actions on and/or off the social networkingsystem 530. The action logger 540 populates the activity log 542 withinformation about user actions, enabling the social networking system530 to discover various actions taken by its users within the socialnetworking system 530 and outside of the social networking system 530.Any action that a particular user takes with respect to another node onthe social networking system 530 may be associated with each user'saccount, through information maintained in the activity log 542 or in asimilar database or other data repository. Examples of actions taken bya user within the social networking system 530 that are identified andstored may include, for example, adding a connection to another user,sending a message to another user, reading a message from another user,viewing content associated with another user, attending an event postedby another user, posting an image, attempting to post an image, or otheractions interacting with another user or another object. When a usertakes an action within the social networking system 530, the action isrecorded in the activity log 542. In one embodiment, the socialnetworking system 530 maintains the activity log 542 as a database ofentries. When an action is taken within the social networking system530, an entry for the action is added to the activity log 542. Theactivity log 542 may be referred to as an action log.

Additionally, user actions may be associated with concepts and actionsthat occur within an entity outside of the social networking system 530,such as an external system 520 that is separate from the socialnetworking system 530. For example, the action logger 540 may receivedata describing a user's interaction with an external system 520 fromthe web server 532. In this example, the external system 520 reports auser's interaction according to structured actions and objects in thesocial graph.

Other examples of actions where a user interacts with an external system520 include a user expressing an interest in an external system 520 oranother entity, a user posting a comment to the social networking system530 that discusses an external system 520 or a web page 522 a within theexternal system 520, a user posting to the social networking system 530a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or other identifier associated with anexternal system 520, a user attending an event associated with anexternal system 520, or any other action by a user that is related to anexternal system 520. Thus, the activity log 542 may include actionsdescribing interactions between a user of the social networking system530 and an external system 520 that is separate from the socialnetworking system 530.

The authorization server 544 enforces one or more privacy settings ofthe users of the social networking system 530. A privacy setting of auser determines how particular information associated with a user can beshared. The privacy setting comprises the specification of particularinformation associated with a user and the specification of the entityor entities with whom the information can be shared. Examples ofentities with which information can be shared may include other users,applications, external systems 520, or any entity that can potentiallyaccess the information. The information that can be shared by a usercomprises user account information, such as profile photos, phonenumbers associated with the user, user's connections, actions taken bythe user such as adding a connection, changing user profile information,and the like.

The privacy setting specification may be provided at different levels ofgranularity. For example, the privacy setting may identify specificinformation to be shared with other users; the privacy settingidentifies a work phone number or a specific set of related information,such as, personal information including profile photo, home phonenumber, and status. Alternatively, the privacy setting may apply to allthe information associated with the user. The specification of the setof entities that can access particular information can also be specifiedat various levels of granularity. Various sets of entities with whichinformation can be shared may include, for example, all friends of theuser, all friends of friends, all applications, or all external systems520. One embodiment allows the specification of the set of entities tocomprise an enumeration of entities. For example, the user may provide alist of external systems 520 that are allowed to access certaininformation. Another embodiment allows the specification to comprise aset of entities along with exceptions that are not allowed to access theinformation. For example, a user may allow all external systems 520 toaccess the user's work information, but specify a list of externalsystems 520 that are not allowed to access the work information. Certainembodiments call the list of exceptions that are not allowed to accesscertain information a “block list”. External systems 520 belonging to ablock list specified by a user are blocked from accessing theinformation specified in the privacy setting. Various combinations ofgranularity of specification of information, and granularity ofspecification of entities, with which information is shared arepossible. For example, all personal information may be shared withfriends whereas all work information may be shared with friends offriends.

The authorization server 544 contains logic to determine if certaininformation associated with a user can be accessed by a user's friends,external systems 520, and/or other applications and entities. Theexternal system 520 may need authorization from the authorization server544 to access the user's more private and sensitive information, such asthe user's work phone number. Based on the user's privacy settings, theauthorization server 544 determines if another user, the external system520, an application, or another entity is allowed to access informationassociated with the user, including information about actions taken bythe user.

In some embodiments, the social networking system 530 can include acontent provider module 546. The content provider module 546 can, forexample, be implemented as the content provider module 102 of FIG. 1. Insome embodiments, the content provider module 546, in whole or in part,may be implemented in a user device 510. For instance, the user device510 may include a visual message module 518. The visual message module518 can, for example, be implemented as the visual message module 112 ofFIG. 1. As discussed previously, it should be appreciated that there canbe many variations or other possibilities.

Hardware Implementation

The foregoing processes and features can be implemented by a widevariety of machine and computer system architectures and in a widevariety of network and computing environments. FIG. 6 illustrates anexample of a computer system 600 that may be used to implement one ormore of the embodiments described herein in accordance with anembodiment of the invention. The computer system 600 includes sets ofinstructions for causing the computer system 600 to perform theprocesses and features discussed herein. The computer system 600 may beconnected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networkeddeployment, the computer system 600 may operate in the capacity of aserver machine or a client machine in a client-server networkenvironment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed)network environment. In an embodiment of the invention, the computersystem 600 may be the social networking system 530, the user device 510,and the external system 620, or a component thereof. In an embodiment ofthe invention, the computer system 600 may be one server among many thatconstitutes all or part of the social networking system 530.

The computer system 600 includes a processor 602, a cache 604, and oneor more executable modules and drivers, stored on a computer-readablemedium, directed to the processes and features described herein.Additionally, the computer system 600 includes a high performanceinput/output (I/O) bus 606 and a standard I/O bus 608. A host bridge 610couples processor 602 to high performance I/O bus 606, whereas I/O busbridge 612 couples the two buses 606 and 608 to each other. A systemmemory 614 and one or more network interfaces 616 couple to highperformance I/O bus 606. The computer system 600 may further includevideo memory and a display device coupled to the video memory (notshown). Mass storage 618 and I/O ports 620 couple to the standard I/Obus 608. The computer system 600 may optionally include a keyboard andpointing device, a display device, or other input/output devices (notshown) coupled to the standard I/O bus 608. Collectively, these elementsare intended to represent a broad category of computer hardware systems,including but not limited to computer systems based on thex86-compatible processors manufactured by Intel Corporation of SantaClara, Calif., and the x86-compatible processors manufactured byAdvanced Micro Devices (AMD), Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., as well as anyother suitable processor.

An operating system manages and controls the operation of the computersystem 600, including the input and output of data to and from softwareapplications (not shown). The operating system provides an interfacebetween the software applications being executed on the system and thehardware components of the system. Any suitable operating system may beused, such as the LINUX Operating System, the Apple Macintosh OperatingSystem, available from Apple Computer Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., UNIXoperating systems, Microsoft® Windows® operating systems, BSD operatingsystems, and the like. Other implementations are possible.

The elements of the computer system 600 are described in greater detailbelow. In particular, the network interface 616 provides communicationbetween the computer system 600 and any of a wide range of networks,such as an Ethernet (e.g., IEEE 802.3) network, a backplane, etc. Themass storage 618 provides permanent storage for the data and programminginstructions to perform the above-described processes and featuresimplemented by the respective computing systems identified above,whereas the system memory 614 (e.g., DRAM) provides temporary storagefor the data and programming instructions when executed by the processor602. The I/O ports 620 may be one or more serial and/or parallelcommunication ports that provide communication between additionalperipheral devices, which may be coupled to the computer system 600.

The computer system 600 may include a variety of system architectures,and various components of the computer system 600 may be rearranged. Forexample, the cache 604 may be on-chip with processor 602. Alternatively,the cache 604 and the processor 602 may be packed together as a“processor module”, with processor 602 being referred to as the“processor core”. Furthermore, certain embodiments of the invention mayneither require nor include all of the above components. For example,peripheral devices coupled to the standard I/O bus 608 may couple to thehigh performance I/O bus 606. In addition, in some embodiments, only asingle bus may exist, with the components of the computer system 600being coupled to the single bus. Moreover, the computer system 600 mayinclude additional components, such as additional processors, storagedevices, or memories.

In general, the processes and features described herein may beimplemented as part of an operating system or a specific application,component, program, object, module, or series of instructions referredto as “programs”. For example, one or more programs may be used toexecute specific processes described herein. The programs typicallycomprise one or more instructions in various memory and storage devicesin the computer system 600 that, when read and executed by one or moreprocessors, cause the computer system 600 to perform operations toexecute the processes and features described herein. The processes andfeatures described herein may be implemented in software, firmware,hardware (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit), or anycombination thereof.

In one implementation, the processes and features described herein areimplemented as a series of executable modules run by the computer system600, individually or collectively in a distributed computingenvironment. The foregoing modules may be realized by hardware,executable modules stored on a computer-readable medium (ormachine-readable medium), or a combination of both. For example, themodules may comprise a plurality or series of instructions to beexecuted by a processor in a hardware system, such as the processor 602.Initially, the series of instructions may be stored on a storage device,such as the mass storage 618. However, the series of instructions can bestored on any suitable computer readable storage medium. Furthermore,the series of instructions need not be stored locally, and could bereceived from a remote storage device, such as a server on a network,via the network interface 616. The instructions are copied from thestorage device, such as the mass storage 618, into the system memory 614and then accessed and executed by the processor 602. In variousimplementations, a module or modules can be executed by a processor ormultiple processors in one or multiple locations, such as multipleservers in a parallel processing environment.

Examples of computer-readable media include, but are not limited to,recordable type media such as volatile and non-volatile memory devices;solid state memories; floppy and other removable disks; hard diskdrives; magnetic media; optical disks (e.g., Compact Disk Read-OnlyMemory (CD ROMS), Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs)); other similarnon-transitory (or transitory), tangible (or non-tangible) storagemedium; or any type of medium suitable for storing, encoding, orcarrying a series of instructions for execution by the computer system600 to perform any one or more of the processes and features describedherein.

For purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide a thorough understanding of the description. It will beapparent, however, to one skilled in the art that embodiments of thedisclosure can be practiced without these specific details. In someinstances, modules, structures, processes, features, and devices areshown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the description.In other instances, functional block diagrams and flow diagrams areshown to represent data and logic flows. The components of blockdiagrams and flow diagrams (e.g., modules, blocks, structures, devices,features, etc.) may be variously combined, separated, removed,reordered, and replaced in a manner other than as expressly describedand depicted herein.

Reference in this specification to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”,“other embodiments”, “one series of embodiments”, “some embodiments”,“various embodiments”, or the like means that a particular feature,design, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. Theappearances of, for example, the phrase “in one embodiment” or “in anembodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarilyall referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternativeembodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, whetheror not there is express reference to an “embodiment” or the like,various features are described, which may be variously combined andincluded in some embodiments, but also variously omitted in otherembodiments. Similarly, various features are described that may bepreferences or requirements for some embodiments, but not otherembodiments.

The language used herein has been principally selected for readabilityand instructional purposes, and it may not have been selected todelineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter. It is thereforeintended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detaileddescription, but rather by any claims that issue on an application basedhereon. Accordingly, the disclosure of the embodiments of the inventionis intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of theinvention, which is set forth in the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:providing, by a computing device, a messaging interface for distributingvisual messages through a social networking system, wherein themessaging interface provides a plurality of options for insertingbackground content in visual messages distributed through the socialnetworking system; determining, by the computing device, at least onevisual message that was created using the messaging interface, whereinthe visual message includes at least some text inputted by a user thatauthored the visual message; and providing, by the computing device, theat least one visual message for distribution through the socialnetworking system.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein the messaging interface is provided in response to a touchscreengesture performed through a display screen of the computing device. 3.The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the at least onevisual message is an ephemeral message.
 4. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 3, wherein the at least one visual message expires aftera pre-defined period of time has elapsed or after being accessed by arecipient of the at least one visual message.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the messaging interfaceprovides an option for adjusting an opacity level for the backgroundcontent.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein themessaging interface provides at least an option for selecting one ormore colors to be used as background content or an option for capturingsubject matter to be used as background content.
 7. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein providing the at leastone visual message for distribution further comprises: providing, by thecomputing device, the at least one visual message to be published as astory through the social networking system.
 8. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein providing the at least one visual message fordistribution further comprises: sending, by the computing device, the atleast one visual message as a message to one or more other users of thesocial networking system.
 9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein the messaging interface provides an option for saving the atleast one visual message as an image in a local data store accessible tothe computing device.
 10. A system comprising: at least one processor;and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at leastone processor, cause the system to perform: providing a messaginginterface for distributing visual messages through a social networkingsystem, wherein the messaging interface provides a plurality of optionsfor inserting background content in visual messages distributed throughthe social networking system; determining at least one visual messagethat was created using the messaging interface, wherein the visualmessage includes at least some text inputted by a user that authored thevisual message; and providing the at least one visual message fordistribution through the social networking system.
 11. The system ofclaim 10, wherein the messaging interface is provided in response to atouchscreen gesture performed through a display screen of the computingdevice.
 12. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one visualmessage is an ephemeral message.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein theat least one visual message expires after a pre-defined period of timehas elapsed or after being accessed by a recipient of the at least onevisual message.
 14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumincluding instructions that, when executed by at least one processor ofa computing system, cause the computing system to perform a methodcomprising: providing a messaging interface for distributing visualmessages through a social networking system, wherein the messaginginterface provides a plurality of options for inserting backgroundcontent in visual messages distributed through the social networkingsystem; determining at least one visual message that was created usingthe messaging interface, wherein the visual message includes at leastsome text inputted by a user that authored the visual message; andproviding the at least one visual message for distribution through thesocial networking system.
 15. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 14, wherein the messaging interface is providedin response to a touchscreen gesture performed through a display screenof the computing device.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 14, wherein the at least one visual message isan ephemeral message.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium of claim 14, wherein the at least one visual message expiresafter a pre-defined period of time has elapsed or after being accessedby a recipient of the at least one visual message.